Cannes – beyond the canapees

Comparing my anticipation to Cannes to my kids looking forward to a Hamleys visit is probably close. Amidst all the meetings with clients and agencies and press and important and also superimportant people, there is a simple highlight beyond the canapees: our drinks with the winners of the Mouse Awards.  5 years ago I kicked off this initiative to showcase & champion online as an effective and creative marketing platform, to encourage even greater awareness of the power of online and its potential in the future. I still remember our very first judging session in Paris with Matias and I since I handed off that highlight of the year to more qualified creative people in my team I have heard things got even worse after judging hours. But anyway: in those 5 years we have established great relationships with the digital creative communities. It’s people I truly appreciate and like for their conviction & courage. This year particularly was an interesting year for me personally as our Grand Prix went to the Belgian agency Boondoggle for their ‘Banner Concerts’ campaign for a Belgian youth bank Axion.  When I see the endless possibilities of digital, the rich story telling thru cross platform applications, and to be fair once in a while overcomplex & overengineerd techie scenario’s – it’s such a breath of fresh air to see ‘simple’ creativity, creativity within the simple borders of the banner, being awarded. It takes 2 seconds to ‘do’ something to you. Dead easy. Simple. Impactfull. A home run. Looking forward to toast on all the winners & the online creative community on wednesday !

Video: MOUSE Awards 2009

“I had a wax yesterday” and more “interesting” tweeting – part 2

A long time ago I made fun out of the at that stage pretty ‘new’ frenzy that was pretty hard to avoid: Twitter. I hardly can be accused of being a conservative dull boring technology adaptor – but I hated the frenzy for the frenzy. I actually loved the technology – but not the end result. I still don’t care too much about what kind of wax you had, how much it costed and if your plummer did show up. It seems all so meaningless. But growing older I have changed my views slightly. Why ? read the great article in Time Magazine or have a look at the video of the D7 conference with two of the founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams.  Amazing how quick a technology changes social rules & rules of engagement in many public or semi public debates or opinion forums.

So tuesday earlier this week I changed my password, and after a year decided to take on slowly using twitter again after an early experiment exactly a year ago. Ironically enough that same day I got a 15 minutes of fame in Slate… in an article on “Orphaned Tweets”… or how people sign up for Twitter, post once, then never return. I was rolling on floor but let me quote:

In at least one instance, two orphan tweets appear to have been in conversation.

marcbresseel getting ready for cannes – printing latest briefing – I hate folding my shirts 8:36 AM Jun 14th, 2008

Kolcott @Marcbresseel You fold your shirts?
9:13 AM Jul 10th, 2008

A lone call followed by a lone response; a social network of two.

I plead guilty.  My good old buddy Karen Olcott: even never bothered to reply. Now even more ironically since that article I get 30 or so new “followers”. I have now nick, tom, lauren, boob doctor and probably even far more interesting people looking at my inspirational tweets. Maybe they are looking for advice on how to fold your shirts when travelling, or maybe they have a slight interest in digital marketing. But at least I am back in the game. Ready for the Cannes Advertising festival. Ready to share my deepest thought with my followers. No more “lone calls”. I feel better already.

“Despairwear” when you need it most…

Yes we Cannes: You dream it. We deliver it.

All of a sudden it hit me. Our year is almost over. Couple of weeks before we finish our business in this fiscal year. Couple of weeks left to motivate our sales guys to go deep. But also: countdown & starting to get ready for the Cannes festival. We’ll be there in just two weeks now. Lots of great events for our delegates and an amazing line-up of Festival speakers at the Palais. I’m really looking forward to hearing Obama’s campaign manager talk about the online campaign that helped win the election. Then there’s Kofi Annan debating how creativity can change the way we think about climate change. These guys are going to play to a packed house, that’s for sure. Got to get there early to grab a seat. As far as our own agenda is concerned, the week is filled with great events like our Business Forum and lunches/meetings/dinners at our “hub” for the week – our “beach club”. Ok, I told you before it’s a dirty job and somebody has to do it and it IS hard work…  It’s also exciting for us all that Steve Ballmer is going to be in town to pick up his Media Person of the Year award and deliver what is bound to be a lively Seminar. We also need to cross our fingers too that the winners of our MOUSE Awards for online campaign excellence get recognised at the Cyber Lions and take home yet another prize.   Cannes is a breath of fresh air to me. It’s an amazing inspirational place; exciting innovative campaigns that are recognised, the debates I have with colleagues and clients – some late in the night! I always return full of enthusiasm for our business. It’s also going to be interesting talking to agency execs and clients about their perception of this tough climate. We’re all in this together and creativity is more important than ever before. Make sure you follow us in Cannes. Our team set up a community site to give a feel for what’s happening, even if you’re not going to be there. More soon from sunny Cannes. In the meantime: You Dream It.

Long… but not bad – The day the media died

I am Microsoft Advertising. With a capital ‘A’ indeed. And proud to be.

Thank God it’s Friday because it has been a hard week of work and connections (and I probably feel that I am getting older… and have more difficulties in coping with the evening extravaganzas triggered by an ad festival) but boy oh boy what a week ! I was attending the Valencia Festival of Media and during the awards dinner Microsoft Advertising was awarded with three prestigious awards:

• Best Local Ad Campaign for a great creative solutions campaign our Italian team developed for Coca-Cola in collaboration with Starcom
• Digital Media Company of the Year – against the Yahoo!, MTV, BBC, Google, New York Times etc of this world
• And finally Media Company of the Year – which is a sort of “best in show” award

These awards are incredibly prestigious and are pretty symbolic to me in the sense that they recognise the successful journey that we have travelled in this company. As somebody who has been involved in Microsoft’s online efforts for the last 12 years it is particularly heart-warming to see these public recognitions. Who would have dreamed all those years ago that a digital media owner – who happens to be a “traditional” software & technology player – beats “traditional” publishers in their own field. In all those years we have been building a fantastic portal experience up to now running portal sites all over the world in localised languages, with local content partnerships and local editorial teams. In all those years we have been working on our Windows Live Hotmail and Messenger experiences, reaching now up to over 600 million Windows Life ID consumers. I call that a global audience. Global scale and reach.

And for advertisers: who would have thought that you could launch your movie in as many counties in the world you would like, with localised experiences, creative formats, video ads and all the stuff you need to deliver on your brand promise. That we would have geared advertising sales forces in all those countries, hired and trained the best professionals in country.

And during those 12 years I was also taken onto a journey of new identities every couple of years. I used to be traditionally called MSN. We were cool and hot and MSN. I still remember the acquisition of Hotmail, and the first 35.000 Hotmail accounts in Belgium; well they were nerdy and groovy at the same time. Then we added Windows Live and we became the sales force with probably the longest name ever in the history of publishing: Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions. And after the reflection that in fact all media are or go digital and that Solutions is as cliché as can be, I truly feel that since a year we not only know what we are, we only created a true “entity with an identity”. We are Microsoft Advertising and proud to be. Microsoft Advertising, with capital A indeed Mary-Jo .  An amazing range of services Hotmail, Messenger and adCenter, coupled with MSN, coupled with the acquisitions of Aquantive, Massive and Screentonic, and adding Xbox Live. A huge global vehicle reaching out to over a billion people a day. Under one brand. A Brand that offers you the promise of reaching out to consumers in new and innovative ways. That creates brand experiences across platform: from PC over TV to Mobile to Gaming devices. A Brand that is backed up by Microsoft’s R&D divisions and that gradually integrates the latest technology into new consumer brand experiences. And a sales force that helps marketeers and agencies navigate thru all those digital possibilities.

Our journey has been phenomenal. And I smile when I see people doubt Microsoft’s interest in the ad business. Our investments have been testimony of our ongoing commitment to digital advertising. It’s pretty simple: consumers go digital. You better partner with a publisher that helps you extend the boundaries of creativity, helps you engage in deep consumer connections and provides you the right customer intelligence. Some will point out that we are not there yet on search. That is correct. It’s a huge focus of the company to improve the search experience.

With all these great awards come great responsibility. In all the client conversations that I have I notice that the expectations on us are big. On further telling the story and educating the market, providing efficient business models with agencies, providing more creative solutions towards bigger Brands that allow more innovative story telling. And on making it simple. In June we are heading to the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Start looking forward to a new look and feel and tagline from Microsoft Advertising that reflects our commitment and brand promise.

Dubai Festival – the friday after

I spent a couple of days in Dubai at the Lynx Advertising festival.  I was not sure what to expect from Dubai but I can share my personal thoughts over a beer. If you like the sight of what seems like eternal building works, metro’s in the making, traffic detours every 200 meter and the utter lack of what gives cities their soul and reason of existence (simple things like people walking in a street for instance), you should go. The place being referred to as “the old city” is merely 24 months old… so all a matter of perspective really. Unless you want to tick your boxes on skiing in the desert and seeing the biggest shopping mall & biggest tower in the world - we all have our fetishes.  I admit I have not seen the fantastic white sand beaches annex 5 star hotels, and the pool of the great Sangri-La hotel was still a bit weird on the 4^th floor in the middle of the city traffic noises. But hee, I was there to attend the seminars, meet clients, do a keynote. So let’s move on.

 

A great line up of speakers.  Contagious editorial director Paul Kemp-Robertson examined how to make the most of mass communications whilst using digital technology to create deeper, more bespoke relationships with passionate groups of brand loyalists. ‘Traditional advertising still has a role to play, but by creating more targeted, granular, niche relationships with people, you start having much more fun as a brand,’ says Kemp-Robertson. ‘The interaction with consumers becomes more meaningful, because it’s now based on conversations with people who have elected to be part of the brand, and therefore expect deeper levels of service, helpful applications and exclusive content.’

 

Laura Desmond, the global CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group spoke about turning around the agency into a “human experience agency”. Where digital is at the centre, shaking up the traditional agency models. Media agencies need to create human experiences for the brands they serve. And looking at the crisis today as a “too good an opportunity to waste.”

 

And many many great conversations !  Once in a while business conversations bring more to the table than just business. Fortunately so. It’s why a simple coffee with Tham Khai Meng – the Worldwide creative director for Ogilvy & Mather and Jury President of the Dubai Lynx for TV, Print, Outdoor and Radio – becomes an inspiring talk about the ad industry, values in life, brand conversations and the endless advertising clutter in life. But we basically agreed to disagree. Khai sees “digital as one letter of the alphabet that translates a great idea into execution”. I thought that was very reductionist. For sure it starts with the Big Idea but in today’s world digital is the context for all consumer behaviour. It cannot be reduced to a single ‘channel’ that defines its audience simply through their use of it. Our presence in this digital environment doesn’t define us because it’s increasingly assumed. For the first time in advertising’s history, those practising it can no longer buy an audience; instead they have to find ways to connect to individuals. And second: you don’t know what you don’t know until someone tells you what you don’t know. The Big Idea might very well be inspired by great technology, because it enables us to do things that were unthought-of before.  Anyway – very charming guy and we agreed to connect. 

 

In my own keynote I talked about “Harnessing Digital Creativity To Connect Brands To Consumers”.  Digital has come a long way in the last five years, but for it to really start punching its weight, fundamental change is necessary. Brands need to place digital media at the heart of their marketing strategies; agencies need to get smart and ensure campaigns really connect with consumers.  Facilitating that conversation is technology.

 

I talked about Silverlight, a new platform that allows designers and developers to work across platforms and creates a rich, seamless experience for consumers. And Deepzoom, a Silverlight-enabled technology that can incorporate a terabyte of information on a single web page. It allows users to zoom in and out of high-definition web pages uncovering whole new layers of information. In the world of Deepzoom, you don’t need to surf from page to page to pursue links or find information; you just need to look more closely at the page you’re already on.

 

In this new consumer reality it has never been more important than before that media owners/publishers, advertisers and creative agencies have to work together to deliver new brand experiences. Partnerships are key. It’s not about us taking your money, going away and coming back with an audience ready to sit and listen to what you have to say. Such a compliant audience no longer exists. But we can introduce you to a quite staggering number of individuals ready and willing to communicate with and about you. And we can help you develop the best, simplest and most valued way of having that conversation. It’s what we’ll be calling advertising – from now on. We believe.

“The Sixth Sense”: easy access to meta information

As Dubai was putting my internal clock wrong with 3 hours time difference I could  not get to sleep and was watching some of the latest TED talks. Particularly proud to see the Belgian Pattie Maes from MIT demoing a wearable device with a projector that shows a way to interact with meta information on objects around us in a more intuitive way. And she mentions the Microsoft Surface table. Pretty astonishing and worth looking at this!

Behind the Bill Gates and mosquitoes story

I knew Bill was having a great time during his semi-retirement from our company – but when I caught up on RSS over the weekend I got really worried. Bill releasing “a swarm of live mosquitoes” in the TED audience saying “No reason that only poor people should get malaria”  ???  Also amazed it got that much press attention; so probably pretty cool PR… he still gets it…  But as I never – almost never, sometimes never – believe what I read I had a look at the full TED presentation.  No freaking out really…. In fact a great piece of content around a disease that continues to destroy so much of our world.  So if you want to cut thru the noice and listen for yourself: have a go.

Time to come back

Feels like ages ago. Or more accurately: it IS ages ago since I spent time here. Feel like somebody getting in the water after not having swum for 15 years or so. Anyway: a lot has happened since november. Fantastic walking time in Nepal. Managing the business thru an economic downturn. Talking to and dealing with inspiring clients. Reading some great novels I always wanted to read. Spending a great deal of my time with the teams in London. All in a nutshell that is. The world has changed, so has marketing, so has advertising. Again. Time to take time again to reflect on what I see happen in the industry, and at our client base.